The General Council of the WTO met informally today to take stock of a range of issues, but most importantly to try to nail down a definitive date for the next ministerial conference – also known at MC12.
MC12
“Historic” services deal, Laos, investment: plurilaterals fill MC12 space
You don’t need a ministerial conference to take important decisions at the World Trade Organization. Despite the 12th ministerial conference not happening this week as planned there has been movement in quite a few areas this week.
WTO Corner: Turkmenistan, NGO MC12 attendance row
Turkmenistan applies to join the WTO There are only a few more holdouts out there in the world which are not members of the world trade institution. Until recently the Central Asian country Turkmenistan was one of them. After its neighbour Uzbekistan made moves to accelerate its accession process to …
WTO Corner: US joins TESSD, EU capital position, Arab MC12 views, Uzbek accession bid
The countdown to the next WTO ministerial to be hald at the end of this month is on.
WTO ‘plurilateral’ agreements brace for moment of truth
India and South Africa never liked ‘plurilateral’ agreement negotiations initiated in the World Trade Organization after the Doha ministerial conference twenty years ago. But a series of agreements among a broad subset of members of the global trade institution are coming to fruition. Now the long-simmering disagreement between these two …
WTO Corner : A frustrated DG, constructive joint statement initiatives, supply chain bottlenecks
Hi from Day 3 of the 2021 WTO Public Forum. The twelfth ministerial conference is two months away and many participants are wondering whether the event that might define the fate of the global world trade institution will rise to the challenge. Signals are mixed – at best. While there …
WTO e-commerce negotiations: status report
Negotiations towards a plurilateral agreement on e-commerce at the World Trade Organization moved another small step forward on Monday (13 September). Parties found a definitive settlement on two more sub-chapters in the area of ‘open government data’ and ‘online consumer protection’. It remains unclear what type of deliverable negotiators will …
Facilitator outlines first ideas for a formalised WTO pandemic response
It’s taken former General Council chair David Walker about one month to figure out what members of the world trade institution in Geneva would likely want to negotiate on in the area of trade and health post-pandemic. Among others, Walker hopes that WTO members could agree quickly on a framework …
WTO: SPS Declaration, EU case against Russian procurement practices, G90
Here a new edition of our WTO Corner blog. It’s been a while…!
WTO Corner: WTO and G7 in quest for ministerial conference agenda
Updated on 1 April 2021. G7 pledges work on WTO overhaul The United Kingdom hosted its first trade ministers meeting as post-Brexit G7 host online today. To the host, WTO reform was a major item it wanted to see addressed at the meeting. “Our like-minded democracies need to win the …
